Condoms not the solution for combating AIDS: Pope

Handing out condoms is not the solution for combating AIDS, Pope Benedict XVI has said while en route to Yaounde, Cameroon, for his first trip as pontiff to Africa.

AIDS "is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems," the pontiff said.

The solution lies in a "spiritual and human awakening" and "friendship for those who suffer," he said.

Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by AIDS than any other region of the world.

Southern Africa bears a disproportionate share of the global HIV burden, with 35 per cent of the world's new infections and 38 per cent of AIDS deaths in 2007.

Last year about 60 Catholic groups wrote an open letter to the pontiff urging him to reverse the Vatican's opposition to contraception.

The ban on condoms "exposes millions of people to the risk of contracting the AIDS virus," they said.

Holocaust-denying bishop

The pontiff also denied feeling alone in the controversy sparked when he lifted the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop.

"In truth, this myth about solitude makes me laugh," the pope said, dismissing reports in the Italian media that the controversy had left him isolated.

"Every day I meet lots of people, I am surrounded by friends. Solitude does not exist," he added.

Last week, Benedict issued a letter to bishops around the world in which he sought to clarify his decision to invite Bishop Richard Williamson to rejoin the fold.

"I was saddened by the fact that even Catholics who, after all, might have had a better knowledge of the situation, thought they had to attack me with open hostility," he wrote.

The 81-year-old pontiff, who is to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories in May, also wrote that he regretted "mistakes" in the handling of the Williamson affair.

The pope suggested that the Vatican was unaware of Williamson's claims that no Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers, and should have consulted the Internet before deciding to lift his excommunication.

Benedict's predecessor John Paul II excommunicated Williamson and three other bishops after traditionalist leader Marcel Lefebvre ordained them as bishops of his separatist church in 1988.

Their fraternity rejected reforms passed by Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s including the Nostra Aetate declaration, which ended a Church doctrine that blamed the Jews for the killing of Jesus Christ.

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